Professor North will co-direct an NEH Summer Seminar with Professor of History Maureen Miller of University of California, Berkeley. Funded by the NEH and hosted by the American Academy of Rome, this five-week seminar during summer 2014 allows 16 college and university faculty to discuss collectively the nature and dynamics of medieval reform movements and to pursue independent research projects from multiple disciplinary perspective.

Raka Mitra, Assistant Professor of Biology

RUI: The role of Ralstonia solanacearum effector protein Rsp1281 in bacterial wilt disease

This RUI (Research in Undergraduate Institutions) grant enables Professor Mitra to investigate a root-invading bacterial wilt pathogen to better determine plant defense pathways employed in roots, gaining insights useful for developing wilt resistant crops. The project supports the PI’s research, an undergraduate researcher in each summer, a technician year round; and it gives opportunity for students in Carleton’s Cell Biology Laboratory and Molecular Biology classes to gain important research lab experiences.

A “Folk and Traditional Arts” grant supports master pipa player, Gao, in promoting and preserving the traditional Pudong style of pipa music, and in giving concerts and lectures in three Minnesota locations.

Joel Weisberg, Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Physics and Astronomy and the Natural Sciences

This RUI (Research in Undergraduate Institutions) four-year project is Weisberg’s eighth NSF grant for his student-faculty team’s astrophysical research centered at Carleton. The team will use the grant to support radioastronomical and theoretical studies of pulsars at Carleton and at radiotelescopes in Puerto Rico and Australia. Pulsars are the cores of dead stars, about the size of a city and containing more mass than the sun, weighing a billion tons per teaspoonful, that spin at rates up to hundreds of times per second. In addition to studying pulsars own fascinating properties, the team will use pulsars to study other astronomical phenomena and theories, travel to meetings and observatories, participate in two month-long residencies at the Australia Telescope National Facility.

The collaborative team of Twin Cities Public Television, the STEM Education Center at the University of Minnesota, and Professor Musicant as a coPI, will pilot a media-based instructional model for high school computer science (CS) with intent to increase students’ awareness and understanding of real-world applications of CS, and improve teachers’ understanding and ability to teach core AP (Advanced Placement) computer science principles.

Professor Hofmeister’s research aims to evaluate reactions and test computational models, enabling rational design of improved catalysts. Funding supports a total of eight undergraduate researchers over three summers and involves collaboration with Professors David Alberg and Daniela Kohen at Carleton, and Professor Keith Kuwata of Macalester College.

AnArtist Initiative grantsupports master pipa player, Gao, in the creation of the first-ever Double Concerto for Pipa and Violin with Symphony Orchestra to be performed with the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra and Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra.

Dana Strand, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of French and the Humanities and Director of French and Francophone Studies

This FACE Tournées Festival funding supports the showing of five French films in February 2014 as a part of Carleton’s international film festival during winter and spring terms 2014. The screenings in Carleton’s Weitz Center for Creativity 250-seat cinema will be open to the larger community; and will be woven into language, literature, and cinema and media studies courses.

The KITP Scholar award funds travel to Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for a total of six weeks over the next three years to work on and discuss theoretical physics with those in residence there.

Trish Ferret, Professor of Chemistry
Nancy Braker, Lecturer in Biology and Director of the Cowling Arboretum
Ross Elfline, Assistant Professor of Art History

Professors Ferret, Braker, and Elfline will participate in the ACM Seminars in Advanced Interdisciplinary Learning (SAIL) with colleagues from Colorado, Beloit, Coe, Luther, and St. Olaf Colleges in Colorado during June 2014. Their project “Developing Environmental Stewardship through Immersive Experiences in Contested Spaces: Collaboration and Learning Across Boundaries” aims to create curricular materials on environmental stewardship at and beyond Carleton.

The ACM’s five-year program of Seminars in Advanced Interdisciplinary Learning, funded by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, supports faculty as they develop innovative, multi-disciplinary curricula for upper-level students.

This Artist Initiative Grant in Visual Arts enables the completion of an experimental 16mm film Circles & Arrows, Matrices & Trees. Professor Jimsen will screen cuts of the film at colleges, universities, and arts centers and conduct workshops on the photochemical process of 16mm hand processing.

Marty Baylor, Assistant Professor of Physics

Optimization of Index Contrast in Diffusive Photopolymers Able to Create Waveguides and Fluid Channels in Optofluidic Devices

The Single-Investigator Cottrell College Science Award (SI-CCSA) from the Research Corporation will move Prof. Baylor closer to her goal of creating 3-D, portable devices for optical sensor applications. Grant support will also enable undergraduate researchers to assist in building apparatus, acquiring data, analyzing results, and devising future experiments.

Professor Singer continues her assignment as Director of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Undergraduate Education (DUE) Division, which started in 2013. As director of DUE, Susan supports the division’s mission of promoting excellence in undergraduate STEM education. Her responsibilities with DUE – a division of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources – entail a grant-funded leave from her Carleton responsibilities for the term of her appointment at NSF.

In the field of Communication/Media Studies, Professor McKinstry was approved to join the Fulbright Specialist Roster. The program enables U.S. faculty and professionals to engage in short-term collaborative projects – focusing on strengthening and developing higher education institutions – with universities overseas.

This McKnight Established Artist grant from SEMAC enables Professor Cornejo to complete “With the Skateboarders,” an experimental documentary project filmed entirely in Northfield. Additionally, the grant allows her to stage a premiere in Northfield, and make the film available for wider viewing.

The subaward, funded by the National Science Foundation through the Keck Geology Consortium, supports geological field research in south-central Alaska. As a partnership between Davidson and a collaborator at Union College (Schenectady, NY), this project has been running since 2011. This grant funds travel and research supplies for Davidson and his collaborator and additionally provides student fellowships for six Carleton students.

Lori Pearson, Professor of Religion

Gender, Religion, and Social Theory: Marianne Weber and the Origins of Religious Studies

This substantial New Directions Fellowship will enable Professor Pearson to address legal, cultural, and societal debates about women’s rights that shaped theories of religion in Germany around 1900. The funding primarily supports summer and sabbatical leave time and graduate coursework.

This Benjamin F. Stevens Fellowship from MHS supports research on any aspect of the history of New England. Professor Zabin will do research in Boston during summer 2014 on her book Occupying Boston.

Audrey Russek, Andersen Fellow in American Studies

2014 Henry Belin du Pont Research Grant

Funder: Hagley Museum and Library

Award date: 4/30/14
Award amount: $800
Project period: 6/23/14-7/4/14

This residential fellowship from the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware – which specializes in the history of American business, technology, and innovation – supports Professor Russek’s research for two weeks during the summer of 2014.

A one-year fellowship from The McKnight Foundation and administered by the American Composers Forum recognizes composers, such as Professor Freeman, whose work is of exceptional artistic merit and who have created a substantial body of work over a period of time. This year, four fellows were chosen from a total pool of 63 applicants. The support is intended to enrich the state of Minnesota by providing for composers’ artistic growth. Professor Freeman’s composed chamber works and choral music are performed regularly in Minnesota, across the U.S., and abroad. Read more in Carleton News.

Administered by Northern Clay Center, this $25,000 fellowship is designed to strengthen and enhance Minnesota’s artistic community, as well as significantly advance the work of Minnesota ceramic artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit, who have already proven their abilities, and who are at a career stage that is beyond emerging. See more in the Carleton News article.